I am 23 years old and have known I am deaf in my left ear since i was 5. In the 6th grade i had a hearing consultant who introduced me to many neat thing in the hearing impaired world. One of which was the cochlear implant. At the time my hearing specialist advised against it saying it would confuse me even more on where sound is coming from. Still to this day i could not tell you where a noise was coming from, and i dont even have the implant! I guess my question is would the cochlear implant be right for me or should i wait till i am completely deaf like the Dr suggested 11 years ago?

The ability to localize sound requires hearing in both ears and difficulty sourcing sounds is a common complaint of persons with hearing that is better in one ear than the other. (Much better in one ear versus the other in your case.) It is not typically recommended to use a cochlear implant in the presence of normal hearing in one ear. The type of sensory information received through a cochlear implant is different than sounds that occur through a normal hearing ear. Hopefully you will retain the hearing in your right ear and not require surgical intervention. I recommend an annual hearing test so that you can continuously monitor the status of your hearing.

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